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India's Google antitrust complaint is a familiar refrain
Sky blue, sun rose in the east, Google's got a fresh antitrust complaint
Google's international antitrust woes continue. This time it's a federal regulatory agency in India giving the company some expensive trouble: the Competition Commission of India found that Google is engaging in "anti-competitive, unfair, and restrictive trade practices" in the mobile phone market and related areas. The report concludes that Google violated five different sections of India's Competition Act of 2002.
If you use Google Maps, you're giving away tons of data about who you are — that is, where you live, where you work, and where you spend your time. For all that information, though, it has still done its vital job: directing people to the places they needed to go. However, the company has slowly grown its profit motives for the app through the development of potential ad products and major pricing changes for its APIs. These decisions could add to Google's already-titanic influence over its users' everyday lives.
If you've ever thought you had a good idea for a new software feature for your phone but didn't think there was any point in sharing it with someone, now's your time to shine. OnePlus is running a Product Management Challenge (#PMChallenge) asking for your best new feature ideas, with some pretty decent prizes for the winner.
Google Play Protect is meant to keep nefarious apps off users' devices. Alternative app marketplace Aptoide has been flagged as such an app, according to a complaint the company has filed with the European Commission. Play Protect is reportedly cautioning some users that Aptoide is potentially harmful, and preventing the store from downloading apps for those who don't heed the warning.
Lenovo-owned Motorola might have been onto something with its modular phone accessories for the Moto Z series, but a combination of slow development of compelling products and poor availability leaves them in a precarious position. Nevertheless, the company is pushing on with the project in 2018 and has some new Moto Mods coming soon, plus a new design competition.
Actions on Google is the name for third-party services on Google Assistant, which was opened up to developers back in December. There is no shortage of Actions available, but I have yet to find one that I would actually use more than once. Google wants developers to create compelling features for Assistant, so the company has started a competition with various monetary and physical rewards.
You may have noticed that AT&T and T-Mobile are in a bit of a spat at the moment. T-Mobile offers early upgrades with no-contract financing plans, and AT&T does the same a few weeks later. T-Mo woos people with credits towards early termination fees, AT&T gives a whopping $450 of credit ($250 for trading in a T-Mo phone, $200 for transferring service) to former T-Mobile customers. But it looks like the gravy train has run out of fuel - CNET reports that the promotion is over.
AT&T and T-Mobile have been at each other's throats for a while now, and while it should come as no surprise that there would be tension between two competitors trying to dominate the same field, things lately have become increasingly petty. Early this month, AT&T made an overt attempt to entice T-Mobile customers by offering up to $450 for them to switch carriers. T-Mobile CEO John Legere declared that AT&T was bribing customers and announced that his carrier would pay customers' early termination fees if they make the switch (from any competitor). Now AT&T will provide any new or existing customer that opens a line with a $100 credit on their bill.
Google Translate has always been one of the unsung heroes of the free service space. On the one hand, it doesn't provide a perfect translation, so people are still hesitant to call it a true breakthrough. On the other hand, we use it all the time to translate web pages enough to get the gist and, when combined with speech-to-text and text-to-speech, you can use the Android app as the closest thing to a universal translator in your pocket the world has ever seen. Now, it's getting even better with offline language packs.
Time to grab the closest energy drink, sit down at your biggest, baddest, multi-monitoriest coding rig and get cracking on some game ideas, devs! Ouya has announced a 10-day competition that will challenge contestants to come up with an Ouya-compatible app from scratch. The shindig gets started on January 14th and from that point, participants will have until January 23rd to submit a playable demo of their original game.
Those of you who are on Sprint and thus have no need for opinions on the Nexus 4's lack of a 4G radio will probably agree: more LTE coverage is more gooder. Well, the Now Network concurs and the carrier is opening up the airwaves in a few more cities and areas, including Anderson, Indiana; Harrisonburg, Virginia; and Peabody, Massachusetts.
Yes, we're an Android site. Yes, there was an Apple event today. We're gonna talk about it. As the newly-recast Rhodey said in Iron Man 2, "It's me. I'm here. Get used to it." Because the new iPhone raises a lot of questions: Didn't I see an Android phone with [some feature] before? Is the new iPhone really the thinnest smartphone around? Why in the world would apps need to be letterboxed? The answer to these questions and more lie within. What doesn't lie within is fanboy bickering. Let's keep it civil everyone.
SwiftKey 3 Is Now The Top Paid App In The Play Store, Company Is Unfazed By Google's Fancy New Keyboard
Swiftkey 3 recently arrived on the Play Store, and not too long afterwards, the company has posted a statement on its blog letting us know that the app
Swiftkey 3 recently arrived on the Play Store, and not too long afterwards, the company has posted a statement on its blog letting us know that the app is currently the best-selling paid app on the Play Store. Not too bad, SwiftKey! Of course, the biggest challenge is ahead, as Google announced yesterday that, from Jelly Bean onwards, the default Android keyboard will attempt to predict your next word. Which smacks just a little of SwiftKey's pitch.
When I read the comments of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in an interview with The Daily Beast, my first thought was "this sounds like an eminently reasonable man making some well-reasoned points." Of course, being an Android site, we took interest in Wozniak's comments on Android's superior (in some respects) voice commands, as well as his praise of its workable built-in navigation solution (something iOS currently lacks outright).
I've been thinking about writing this editorial for some time now. And today, with the announcement of Panasonic's upcoming Toughbook Android tablet, I finally decided to go for it. The point this article is trying to make may not be abundantly clear in the title, so let me see if I can get it across as a question: Is it just me, or are there a suspiciously large number of companies in or planning to enter the Android tablet market?
To answer the question, briefly: nobody really knows at this point. But I do think Google is going to have to make some sacrifices in the short term if the Music service is going to get off the ground. And that's because the record labels won't play ball - at least not by Google's rules according to All Things D, quoting two apparently well-connected sources.
While we at Android Police don't exactly wait with bated breath to hear what Steve Jobs has to say at Apple announcements like the one for the iPad 2 today, we would be fooling ourselves to pretend that Apple products don't directly affect the market for Android devices. While an Android fan's first reaction to the latest iAnnouncement is often to (understandably) bash the smooth-talking fruit company from Cupertino, I believe that today's events could shake up the tablet market for the better.
Gaming has progressed a long way since the first consoles were introduced in the 80's. Since then, PC and console gaming has grown to the point where televised tournaments are held for huge prizes and, for some [lucky] people, it can even be a full-time job! Now mobile gamers can join in on the fun, as Droid Gamers have announced the first ever Android Gaming Challenge.